Winner
Matthew Pullar
Imperceptible Arms:
A Memoir in Poems
With honesty and
an open-heart a
poet examines the
dimensions of grace
and hardship, including mental illness.
Effortless rhythm and rhyme display a
mastery of a range of poetic forms and
structures. There are punchy sonnets
and compelling couplets. These reflections on faith are beautiful, thoughtful
and accessible.
Origami Prayer
Open me outwards;
Too long I’ve wandered
Inside inward caverns
In search of the words
For textures and fissures
And tensions inside.
Open me upwards;
Let Your sun fill me.
Too long I’ve enclosed
Myself in my Self,

I offend when I call You ‘Father’.
Yes, it offends: pig dung clinging to
my rags, Your princely robes clothing me,
the shocking, undignified sight of
Your father’s legs running to me,
the defiant one—the one who did not
know his place.
Now my place is fully known;
there’s order, I guess, within Your grace—
reordering in the way You place me
back where I should be, and yet—
You broke every rule when You ran
outside to bring me in.
Purpose
Before the fact,
Before the light,
Before the waters and their domes,
Before the dust,
Before the breath,
Before the rib, before the sleep,
Before the names,
Before the planting,
Before the harvest and the fruits,
Before the notion,
Before the garden,
Before the apple and the tree,

Before the leaves,
Before the crushing,
Before the biting of the heel,
Before the sword,
Before the cherub,
Before the roaring of the seas,
Before the dove,
Before the olive,
Before the bow turned up at me,
Before the child,
Before the temple,
Before the palm-leaves and the tree,
Before the skull,
Before the nails,
Before the breaking of the tomb,
Before the rise,
Before the many,
Before the Body and the feet,
Before the fall and rise of many,
Before the rift, before the mercy,
Before the Law, before the language,
Before it all the plan.